The evolution of technology: A millennial analysis

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Unless you live under a rock, you realize that technology is always evolving. From the first time we invented fire, to the colonization of settlements, to the evolution of those settlements like colonial Jamestown, to telegraphs, to the telephone, to skyscrapers, to the television, to the internet, to social media: technology has become something larger than itself.

Like human life, technology has had an evolutionary trajectory. Kevin Kelly, the Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine, compares technology to a super-organism with its own characteristics and trademarks parallel to other organisms. Transformative in nature, technology has changed the way humans communicate. For example, before the concept of money, we used to trade items for items at flea markets until one day someone decided that metals could be molded into coins and used to purchase items.

The perpetuation of mass communication via technologies like the radio and television is another example of the evolution of technology. The radio, coming before the television, increased connectivity. Look at Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. Being able to actually listen to the president give a speech, at the same time as every other person in America, provided a deeper connection- a stronger tie- between individuals. The television provided the same thing. Now, we could attach a face to the voice we heard over the radio. Not only did this lead to the expansion of the advertising and film industries, but it also lead to an increased connectivity of individuals. You could be sitting in your home in California watching a newscaster broadcast from New York. Technology is evolutionary because it changes, and has changed, the laws of communication.

“These tools have radically altered the old limits on the size, sophistication, and scope of unsupervised effort” says Clay Shirky, a social media theorist and the author of Here Comes Everybody.

And because that unsupervised effort provides mass amateurization there is an increase in communication and connectivity within the culture.

Technology has also provided a platform for society to cultivate real change. An example of this is the Arab Spring. A man in Tunisia was fed up with the corrupt regime above him and lit himself on fire in a flea market. Sure enough, someone snapped a photo and shared it on social media. In Tunisia, and many of the other areas where the Arab spring took place, had regulated internet however because they didn’t see the threat of social media, didn’t include Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter and Facebook allowed groups to connect with one another and eventually overthrow regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. While they were unsuccessful in Libya and Syria, the Arab Spring proved to the world that you can cultivate change with social media.

With the increased communication technology provides, comes an increased responsibility. Particularly with our online communications, we need to be more protective than ever. We have become a society that is addicted to sharing online. We are constantly writing articles, blog posts, Facebook statuses, Tweets, Instagram posts- letting our followers or inner circle in on every detail of our daily lives. While that’s great and all, that also leaves us more vulnerable than ever. Back in elementary school we were taught to be careful of what we share online and who we talk to, because they could be predators hiding behind a screen that could kidnap us.

What happened to that? Where is my fourth grade teacher who told me to be careful online while I’m scrolling through hundreds of stranger’s profiles on my Tinder on Long Island looking for a date? We have grown to become so comfortable with sharing online that we have forgotten how dangerous talking to a complete stranger, or the world, through a screen can be.

Another consequence of the technical age is an increase in anxiety and other mental health disorders. Because we are always connected, the fear of missing out has taken over our lives. I can be at home, alone, and see a Snapchat of a party down the block I wasn’t invited to. Because of our obsession with social media, chances are every person at that party posted at least one snap on their story of them being there. So, I will keep checking Snapchat to see what I’m missing. Not only will I experience the inevitable fear of missing out, but I will be left more susceptible to other mental health disorders like anxiety, depression and eating disorders. I may see this party and begin to analyze why I was not given an invitation. Maybe I’m not cool, pretty, thin, or awesome enough to be invited.

Teens used to hangout in shopping malls or football stadium stands. Now they hangout online. This concept of a networked public as discussed by Dana Boyd relates to the idea that the internet has become the new hallway for social interaction. While it can be comforting to be able to communicate with others without physically being in their presence, this is problematic in situations like bullying.

Think about the traditional bullying experience you either went through or have heard about. Joey, the bully, chases you around the playground saying he’s going to give you a knuckle sandwich. Whether or not he gives you that knuckle sandwich is up to him, but regardless, when you get off of the school bus and into your house you’re safe. Behind closed doors, you’re in the clear.

With technology and social media platforms, there are no closed doors. You are in a networked public-where everyone is connected 24/7.

The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a highly advanced terrorist organization that utilizes the internet and social media to spread its message. By using propaganda videos, publishing manuals on how to create home made bombs, and how to pledge allegiance to them, ISIS has perfected a method of using technology to perpetuate violence. It could be argued that without technology, ISIS would not be as much of a threat as it is. ISIS has used technology to become more visible and accessible and honestly, that’s dangerous.

So while technology has been evolutionary and beneficial to our daily lives, it’s creation of social media and our obsession with sharing online, provides consequences.

Where is technology headed?

Collaborative consumption is a concept which related to our trend away from a traditional monetary economy to a sharing economy. A sharing economy is one where instead of purchasing a new item for money, you either swap items with someone else or rent them. What’s interesting about sharing economies is that they take away the value of the dollar and place it on the value of the object desired. Instead of a credit line, the way you are judged is by your reputation which is shared online.

What’s interesting about collaborative consumption is it brings us back to our roots. Back in Mesopotamia, we traded goods for goods, like trading a chicken for a vase. Weirdly enough, we are going back to that trend. Older technologies fade away, but we still talk about them. You know what an analog clock looks like, and honestly they’ll probably come back into style in the next decade.

Technology, like humans, is its own species except for one critical component- it never dies. Which may be a consequence of technology within itself